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More IF publicity

At 1UP, thanks to Lara Crigger. There appears to be a main article (following the usual scheme of such articles, it starts by referring to the good old days of Infocom, but it does branch out to some history of modern IF) and a feature recommending some IF for beginners — Lost Pig, Ecdysis, Tales of the Traveling Swordsman, Galatea, and Photopia, this time around.

I’ve always known about IF and dabbled occasionally in it – for example, Hitchhiker’s Guide and Dungeon Man (The really short one on Homestarrunner). After a year or two though I pretty much lost interest. When this article came out though, I played Lost Pig and loved it. I also played the Baron, which I thought was pretty damn amazing. So I was just wondering, are there any works that you would recommend that are in a similar vein to these two?
Thanks (Whether or not you respond. I won’t mind.)

from http://www.1up.com/do/feature?cId=3168303
“Given how eloquent some of these games can be, it always feels a little odd-ish that the player interacts with such sparse diction. “Go east,” “Get rock,” “Eat rock,” and so on. In Lost Pig, with its caveman-like protagonist and Cookie Monster-ish dialogue, this actually makes perfect sense.”

Yes, it also makes perfect sense as to why shallow humorous interactive fiction works as this one or HHGG receive so much praise for so little depth and ambition: gamers just want some inconsequential fun with games, nothing more. Even if it means silly out-of-context stuff as “take off pants” or “rape gondolier with rock”.

— writing something “merely” fun is neither easy nor without value to the world
— in Lost Pig, TAKE OFF PANTS is not out of context, but belongs to the performance of the player character; it’s a kind of interaction that I suspect would be very much of interest to fans of literature, even if some of them, like you, choose to look down on this particular instance.

But, in any case, this is hardly a matter you can’t do anything about — if you think IF should be different and target a different audience, by all means, write something for that audience and publicize it.

I think one problem with the world today is that there’s far too much fun and little seriousness around. Another is that the fun is usually of the silliest kind.

“– in Lost Pig, TAKE OFF PANTS is not out of context, but belongs to the performance of the player character;”

So, authors should start taking into account the PC taking off the pants in the middle of the office for no apparent reason other than please the player? It’s kinda like in the old days of stage plays when the audience could boo and throw tomatoes at the actors if the character they portrayed was a villain or something. Only difference is that the player can try to throw the PC into silly situations even in the middle of a serious work…

“But, in any case, this is hardly a matter you can’t do anything about — if you think IF should be different and target a different audience, by all means, write something for that audience and publicize it.”

Yes, I intend to do so, though there surely are enough ambitious IF with serious undertones including some of your own.

But it’s of course much harder given the language barrier. While I can manage to make arguments in English, writing lush descriptions of places and things is not exactly a piece of cake… thankfully, the web is there to help…

“I think one problem with the world today is that there’s far too much fun and little seriousness around. Another is that the fun is usually of the silliest kind.”

You’re going to absolutely hate my entry for this year’s competition. Don’t worry; I won’t take your criticism very seriously. I’ll self-satirize through other channels, but with any luck I’ll be standing in firm opposition to the idea that silliness is bad.

“Yes, I intend to do so, though there surely are enough ambitious IF with serious undertones including some of your own.”

On the other hand, I enjoy serious writing too. I look forward to playing some of this. I just hope it doesn’t down-talk to me, or you may find that it has a rather ironic effect. In any case, I hope you’ll forgive me for cannibalizing Edgar Allen Poe. I may be committing a cardinal sin in the literary world. Just know that we fans of silliness also enjoy the serious parts of life, and yes, they are more meaningful.